


Someone loves you

by LesbianDragon_LD



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Age Difference, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Dorothea being in love with Manuela and thinking it's unrequited, F/F, Older Woman/Younger Woman, Secret Crush, Teacher-Student Relationship, just a short angsty fic about Dorothea/Manuela
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 17:57:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21275351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesbianDragon_LD/pseuds/LesbianDragon_LD
Summary: Manuela gets very drunk at the ball and as always, Dorothea is the one who is ready to help.





	Someone loves you

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write something on the sadder/angstier side for this ship, because I really like them and I think they have a great dynamic when both Dorothea and Manuela struggle so much with their relationships and their views on love/suitors.  
Next fics about Dorothea/Manuela will definitely be on the happier side tho!

During the ball, it fell to Dorothea to carry a drunken Manuela back to her quarters. Many people had offered help as they saw Manuela fall, but Dorothea insisted to be the one who helped her. And so, as a barely conscious Manuela clung to Dorothea for support, both did their best to walk through the lonely corridors as the rest of the students and staff stayed behind dancing and having fun.  
Manuela merely murmured incoherently about how few suitors wished to dance with her that ball, opposed to Byleth’s popularity that attracted so many. Dorothea was only half-listening to Manuela’s jealous rants, more focused on getting to their destination without having Manuela accidentally fall or stumble over her own feet on their way.  
Finally, they arrived at Manuela’s dorm room. Dorothea helped her professor reach her bed safely and once Manuela laid down and closed her eyes, seemingly to drift off to sleep, Dorothea turned to leave. But as she reached the doorway she heard Manuela call out to her;

“Dorothea!”

It had been a sudden call, one that caught Dorothea off guard. Immediately she turned back to see the drunken professor’s eyes open and staring at her expectantly.

“Don’t leave me” she heard Manuela cry out to her, and her heart almost sank at her tone.

Dorothea closed the door before returning to Manuela’s side, sitting down on the edge of her bed as her professor’s eyes started to water. Manuela didn’t usually cry, no matter how drunk she was. But Dorothea had grown to know that things changed when she was the only one there to witness her vulnerable professor.

“Please, don’t leave me too…I can’t lose you as well…” Manuela cried, and Dorothea was only able to softly stroke Manuela’s hair as she tried to calm the older woman.

“I’m not leaving you, Manuela. I could never leave you” was the only thing Dorothea managed to repeat over and over to reassure the older woman, even if she herself didn’t quite get what Manuela meant by her words. 

Eventually, Manuela did calm down and stopped mumbling. Her face was smudged with tears and makeup, but at least she had managed to stop crying. Dorothea stopped her ministrations to get up and find a towel she could clean Manuela’s face with, so Manuela wouldn’t get her pillow dirty, but as soon as she moved to get it she felt a hand grab her arm.  
Dorothea turned to Manuela, opening her mouth to explain that she wasn’t actually leaving as she was instead only trying to find a towel and would return right after. But before she could utter a single word, Manuela spoke again.

“They all leave me…all but you… you’re the only one who cares for me. You’re all I have, Dorothea…if I ever lose you I’ll…I’ll…”

Manuela broke down again as her voice trailed off.  
For Dorothea, it was almost unbearable to see her like this. It was outright painful even.  
And so all that Dorothea could do was what she always did when Manuela got this drunk and expressed her loneliness to the younger woman; she laid beside Manuela, holding her and waiting for her professor to fall asleep.

“You’re an angel” Manuela murmured softly into Dorothea’s shoulder, as she snuggled with the younger woman in her bed, “you’re an angel sent to me by the Goddess, I’m sure of it. That’s why you never leave me no matter how bad I get. If only you were…if we…”

Manuela’s drunken speech trailed off as she hesitated, but Dorothea had heard it so many times before that she couldn’t help laugh as she finished her sentence for her;

“If only I was a man your age who loved you, and not your student and pupil. If only, and then you’d confess your undying love for me.”

Even drunk, Manuela’s eyes widened.

“How do you-“

“This isn’t the first time this happens…” Dorothea interrupted with a sad chuckle, “…you just never happen to remember when you wake up the next day.”

Manuela fell quiet for a moment. Her mind was fighting the effects of alcohol as she tried to focus, trying to think. And then, sadness took her over again.

“Perhaps it’s best I don’t remember. I embarrass myself enough as it is… I don’t need to remember my pathetic confessions. I’m sorry, Dorothea, for doing this over and over again…” 

Dorothea merely stared at the older woman, a desperate look on her face.

“Do you know what happens next, Manuela?”

Dorothea’s voice was dripping with sadness. Somehow she looked even more depressed than Manuela at that moment. So Manuela merely shook her head, almost afraid of what Dorothea was about to tell.

“What happens next,” Dorothea started, “is that I tell you how much I love you. I tell you how I wish I could tell you that I love you when you aren’t in this state, so that you can remember that you are loved. But I know I’m not who you want to be with. I can never be enough for you to want me. So I let you forget me, because I can’t bear the thought of you hating me for loving you. Because in the same way you can't lose me, I can't lose you either.”

Manuela’s heart sank.  
She wanted to say so many things.  
She wanted to tell Dorothea she loved her. She wanted to tell her she was enough. She wanted to tell her she never imagined Dorothea could love someone like her that way. She wanted to tell her that the reason why she was always looking for a man was an act of pure desperation so she would stop feeling so lonely, because she was told all her life that she needed a man and children to be happy. She wanted to tell Dorothea that being with her made her forget that same crushing loneliness and anxiety and that she wanted, desperately, to love Dorothea and be loved by her.  
She wanted to say so many things and yet her words failed her.  
And the alcohol was making her sleepy.  
She tried desperately to stay awake, to hold a proper conversation with the woman in her arms and tell her all she felt… but the world was spinning and everything was getting blurry.  
The last thing she heard before blacking out was her voice;

“I love you, Manuela. I promise I’ll be brave enough to tell you someday, so that you can remember it. I love you.”

~.~.~.~

Manuela’s head was killing her. As usual, she woke up alone in her bed, her room a mess and her body hurting from her hangover. She tried to remember the previous night, but all she could remember was the ball and some embarrassing stunts she pulled during it. She remembered drinking a tad too much with Catherine and Shamir, and then rambling about her lack of suitors to Hanneman, as she watched many male students begging Byleth for a dance. The oblivious professor refused most of them, and it just made Manuela more irked that some had the audacity to ask her to dance right after being turned down by Byleth, treating her as a second option. She remembered seeing couples dancing, seeing Seteth give an earful to some poor soul who asked Flayn for a dance. She remembered seeing Dorothea having fun but turning down an alarming number of suitors. She remembered seeing Claude pester Byleth until she agreed to dance with him…and she did not remember much else. She only remembered passing out sometime after. And then she remembered someone helping her and then her memories became a blur. But she also remembered…  
‘I love you, Manuela.’  
She remembered that dream. Or at least, she thought it was a dream. But it was reoccurring.  
She was sure it was her loneliness playing tricks on her memory, but part of her wondered if it could be true.  
Maybe someone did love her the way she hoped to be loved.  
Maybe someone really liked Manuela for who she was, with all her flaws.  
Maybe someone truly loved her and Manuela just couldn’t remember who they were.  
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door.  
She was ready to shoo them off when she heard Dorothea’s voice.

“Professor Manuela, are you alright?”

She replied that she was alright, and that she’d be there in a minute. Manuela hurried to adjust her clothes and her hair, trying her best to look semi-decent before she opened the door.

“You had a rough night yesterday, and I was worried sick about you” Dorothea told her with a smile, and yet Manuela couldn’t shake that feeling that there was something strangely familiar about Dorothea’s voice. Still, she shrugged it off.  
She invited Dorothea for tea and soon the whole subject about her love troubles was behind her. After all, if there was anyone who helped her forget her loneliness, it was Dorothea in the time they happily spent together.


End file.
